In Contention

Tag: Human Factor

  • Eastwood tells Lee to ‘shut his face’

    After a terse response at Cannes to Spike Lee’s accusation that “Flags of Our Fathers” sidelined African-Americans’ contribution to WWII, Clint Eastwood has spoken at greater length about the matter. In a substantial interview in today’s Guardian, he makes his feelings toward Lee quite clear:

    “He was complaining when I did Bird. Why would a white guy be doing that? I was the only guy who made it, that’s why. He could have gone ahead and made it. Instead he was making something else.” As for Flags of Our Fathers, he says, yes, there was a small detachment of black troops on Iwo Jima as a part of a munitions company, “but they didn’t raise the flag. The story is Flags of Our Fathers, the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn’t do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people’d go, ‘This guy’s lost his mind.’ I mean, it’s not accurate.”

    In what appears to be a pre-emptive strike, he defends his new film “Changeling” against similar accusations, noting that it takes place in Los Angeles before it had a significant black population:

    “What are you going to do, you gonna tell a fuckin’ story about that? Make it look like a commercial for an equal opportunity player? I’m not in that game. I’m playing it the way I read it historically, and that’s the way it is. When I do a picture and it’s 90% black, like Bird, I use 90% black people … A guy like him should shut his face.”

    Well, I wouldn’t expect the Clintster to mince his words, but still… wow. It will be interesting to see if Lee has (another) rebuttal prepared. For one thing, one wonders what makes of Eastwood taking on Nelson Mandela in “Human Factor.” (Eastwood has a quip prepared already: “I’m not going to make Nelson Mandela a white guy.”)

    Lots of good stuff in the interview besides, particularly for fans of the Dirty Harry films. Check it out here. 

  • Eastwood finds his ‘Human Factor’

    Does Clint Eastwood ever sleep? With “Changeling” and “Gran Torino” set to keep his profile high in 2008, Variety reports that he’ll begin shooting his next film, “Human Factor,” in South Africa early next year.

    The project, based on John Carlin’s upcoming book “Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation,” is a study of South Africa’s landmark 1995 home-turf victory in the Rugby World Cup; an event that symbolically consolidated a new era of hope for the country after its first democratic election in 1994. Key to the proceedings was recently-elected president Nelson Mandela, whose wholehearted endorsement of the Springbok rugby team went a long way towards breaking down racial barriers in the post-apartheid state.

    Morgan Freeman (did you really expect anyone else?) was drafted in to play Mandela some time ago. Now Matt Damon, after a long period of speculation, has finally been confirmed to play Francois Pienaar, the captain of the Springbok team. (The none-too-pretty Pienaar should be flattered with that casting – the two look about as alike as… oh, say, Nelson Mandela and Morgan Freeman. But I digress.)

    So far, so Hollywood. But as a South African myself, I must admit to having mixed feelings about the whole enterprise. As someone who remembers exactly where he was on the 24th of June 1995, when the Springboks squeaked past New Zealand 15-12 to claim the trophy, part of me is stunned and a little thrilled that the day that made such an impression on me, as a 12 year-old kid in Johannesburg, would capture the imagination of otherwise disinterested Hollywood execs. And if anyone in Tinseltown can handle the material without letting it slip into gloopy underdog sports-drama treacle, it’s probably latter-day Eastwood.

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